BY NATASHA JEE & NURIN YUSRINA

KUCHING: The food aid programme under the National People’s Well-Being and Economic Recovery Package (Pemulih) aims to help those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic so that they have food on the table.

Senior Works Minister and Petra Jaya MP Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof said that was why the federal government had announced an allocation of RM300,000 to all MPs from both the government and opposition to implement the food basket aid programme in the country.

“The aid is critical because many people have lost their jobs and sources of income due to Covid-19,” he said during the handover of the food baskets at Kampung Sungai Bedil yesterday.

“In my parliamentary constituency, about 5,000 household heads will benefit from this programme,” Fadillah said, adding that the distribution of the food aid should be completed within three to four days.

He explained that for the food aid programme, an amount of RM100 had been set for each food basket.

“But this has been reduced to RM60 each to help more people in the target group.
“So the number of recipients has increased from 3,000 to 5,000. Apart from that, my service centre will also seek additional allocations to ensure help for more people,” he said.

Fadillah added the target group consisted of families undergoing quarantine, poor groups registered under e-Kasih, B40 as well as those who lost their jobs and needed special assistance other than basic food.

“The food baskets depend on the needs of the target group; besides food, they may also contain baby and adult pampers.”

Fadillah disclosed that recently, 17,000 recipients in the Petra Jaya parliamentary constituency benefitted from the food basket assistance under the Bantuan Khas Sarawakku Sayang (BKSS) 6.0 package which was allocated by the Sarawak government.

“Between January and June this year, 3,035 household heads in the Petra Jaya parliamentary constituency received assistance through an allocation by the Petra Jaya Service Centre worth RM182,100,” he said.

Fadillah pointed out that this equalled to a total of 25,035 household heads in the Petra Jaya Parliamentary Constituency who had received assistance through BKSS 6.0, Pemulih and Petra Jaya Service Centre since the beginning of this year.

“We understand that many more are in need of help and we will do our level best to help,” he said.